Wandering the paths of my ancestors

Tag Archives: Pinochle

My partner, Cheryl has her mother’s and her grandmother’s cookbooks. I always thought that was so neat. You can see the little notes about tweaks in the recipes. It is a great heirloom.

I have not been able to find the same treasures in my family. But, we had beer and baking.

Peter Kersten (my great-grandfather) was a brewer. It is interesting because my younger brother Joe became a home brewer. According to census records, Peter was a brewer from his arrival until his 50’s. According to my Aunt Viv, he was also a home brewer and wine maker. I have an email from her from 2010 in which she states “When I was young, I can remember my daddy (Fred Whitehead) taking me with him to pick up grandpa after his evening shift at Keeley’s.”

Viv also recalls Anna Stallaber Kersten being a baker. She wrote “Grandma Kersten was a magnificent baker. Every Saturday she would bake all kinds of coffee cake, etc. and we would go over to get our share. Also on Saturday evening there was a gathering of friends at their house for cards…I think pinochle.” In a more recent email she added, “I can still remember helping to roll the dough….and the wonderful kitchen smells…and eating warm coffee cake.”

I started to think about Pinochle, because I wanted to get the spelling correct for this post. I just learned that German Immigrants (like my great grandparents) brought this game with them to the United States. It is actually a mispronounced French word, “Binochle” but apparently with the German accent it came out as Pinochle and it stuck. You can read more about it here: http://www.playingcardsandmore.com/pinochleanoverview.aspx

Viv goes on to say that they were great grandparents and she spent a lot of time with them. It is making me hungry for coffee cake right now, or maybe a beer. Hmm. I digress. Until later, I will be exploring backwards.

Below is a picture of Peter and Anna. They look both very young, so I am unsure when this was taken.